The decision to offer John Delaney the FAI's top job was taken by the association's council yesterday in the shadow of the massive, exposed steel frame of a conference centre started by Citywest owner Jim Mansfield before the issue of planning permission had been properly resolved.
If there was a warning there about the pitfalls of proceeding before receiving the official go-ahead, however, then the club representatives and league delegates, who had gathered from around the country to consider the organisation's lack of a leader, clearly weren't keen on heeding it. Just 90 minutes after members of the board unanimously recommended the 37-year-old Delaney from Waterford be appointed chief executive "on an interim basis" the proposal was agreed without even the need for a vote by the 60-strong council.
Delaney still has to formally accept the post but yesterday's offer effectively completes his swift rise to the top of the organisation, which his father Joe previously served as treasurer prior to his resignation in 1996 over the issue of ticketing at the 1994 World Cup.
Having established a number of business interests in the south east and becoming a director of Waterford United, Delaney, who is also a nephew of Waterford Wedgwood managing director Redmond O'Donoghue, became seriously involved in FAI politics a couple of years later. In 2000 and 2001 he really came to prominence when, along with John Byrne and Brendan Menton, he fiercely opposed Bernard O'Byrne's plans for the construction of Eircom Park.
When the three negotiated a deal with Government that offered considerable capital funding and a long-term tenancy on very favourable terms at the proposed national stadium at Abbottstown as an alternative to the association's increasingly impractical scheme, O'Byrne departed and Delaney assisted Menton in taking over.
He took on the job of treasurer, a position that gave him huge influence over how the organisation's desperately stretched resources were distributed. A little over a year later when a scapegoat was required for the association's role in the Saipan fiasco, Delaney quietly allowed his former ally, Menton, to accept the blame for the shortcomings identified in the Genesis Report.
Though he generally came out of the Roy Keane affair at the 2002 World Cup well, it was subsequently reported that he had, unprompted, suggested to Mick McCarthy's agent Liam Gaskin that he ask for a £100,000 loyalty bonus for the manager during negotiations over a new contract. He was viewed by some within the association to have survived the ensuing controversy which included a threat of legal action by Gaskin over Delaney's initial denial of the allegation.
He lost out 2-1 in the vote to appoint Mick McCarthy's successor, having backed Bryan Robson for the job, but his influence continued to grow. He was a key figure in the appointment of Fran Rooney as chief executive and was a staunch supporter of the new man.
He proved an important ally for Rooney as several political opponents were removed from Merrion Square but he became frustrated by the chief executive's performance and is said to have warned him at the time that then honorary secretary Kevin Fahy was voted out there were no longer any excuses for not delivering.
Within a couple of months it was the loss of Delaney's support that marked the beginning of the end for Rooney.
Even his critics, and for all yesterday's apparent unanimity he has quite a few, seem to have felt that the best way forward was to ensure he assumed responsibility for the fortunes of the association while wielding so much power.
